Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Access to medical support implements, such as defibrillators, inhalers and drugs like epinephrine and insulin, may be critical to those in emergency medical situations. Further, expedient access to or delivery of such medical support implements may be particularly important in cases of cardiac distress or anaphylactic shock where mere minutes can make a difference in saving a person's life. Typically, when a medical emergency occurs in a residential, commercial or public setting (i.e., outside of a hospital or other healthcare facility), the person experiencing the emergency or a bystander will call 911 or another emergency medical service and wait for help to arrive, or will locate the nearest First-Aid kit or Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and attempt to provide medical assistance.
This construct may have certain disadvantages to both the person experiencing the medical emergency and the homeowner or entity that owns, leases or manages a public or commercial facility. For example, the medical support implement(s) necessary to respond to or provide treatment in a medical emergency may not be readily available or easily accessible at the site of the emergency. Generally, drugs such as epinephrine and insulin are not kept in commercial or public buildings. While AEDs are required by law to be placed in certain public and commercial spaces, they may not be present in the immediate area of an emergency when it occurs and may be hard to locate, may not be functioning properly due to lack of proper maintenance, or may not include sufficient instructions for a layperson to provide adequate assistance. If an emergency medical service is called, it can take up to 20 seconds for the dispatcher to even pick up the call and then can take another seven to nine minutes for a first responder to arrive to provide emergency medical care.
Further, the cost to purchase, install and maintain AEDs or other medical support implements in a public or commercial place can be significant. For example, an AED may cost around $2,000-$3,000 just to install and laws may require multiple AEDs to be placed within a building or other large space. Moreover, typical AEDs must be manually maintained, requiring maintenance personnel to periodically visit to the site at which it is installed, levying additional burden and cost to the building or facility owner. Such costs would also likely be prohibitive to an individual desiring to have access to an AED in his or her residence.